The present disclosure relates to inks. In particular, the present disclosure relates to inks comprising silver nanoparticles.
One of the continuing challenges for ink formulations is to obtain proper rheology properties, as different printing technologies require inks having different viscosity ranges. For example, inkjet technology usually requires a Newtonian fluid with viscosity typically from about 5 to 15 cps, while flexographic and gravure printing often need a non-Newtonian fluid with viscosity around 20-200 cps for flexographic printing and 100-1000 cps for gravure printing. Various rheology modifiers have been developed to address different ink formulations according to the viscosity requirements for each particular printing application. However, a universal rheology modifier that can adjust the viscosity of silver nanoparticle inks across the range of printing technologies remains to be developed.